Unusual Ship Charters, Complex Programs, Challenging Issues

No matter how complex your program requirements or how big the unexpected challenges, Landry & Kling can provide “elegant solutions” to ensure your success at sea. During our 30 years of planning and operating group cruise events and cruise ship charters, we’ve handled it all without a hitch.

Here are some examples:

We recommended a cruise ship charter of the 1750-passenger Celebrity Century for a family-oriented direct sales company. In order to accommodate the number of anticipated number of children, Landry & Kling assigned two Program Managers—one for the adult program, the other responsible exclusively for overseeing the children’s program.

Because the cruise line didn’t have enough children’s counselors, Landry & Kling recruited and trained an additional 30 children’s counselors, and developed a separate children’s program (with activity grids and daily agendas) for 260 children in four age groups.

Political Conflict Requires Last-Minute Itinerary Change

Only six weeks prior to departure, our corporate client was concerned about their Greek Isles sales incentive program due to political conflicts in the eastern Mediterranean. Immediately, Landry & Kling’s operational experts began researching alternative ports, and replaced the two custom back-to-back itineraries we had designed between Rome and Istanbul with two totally new itineraries sailing between Rome and Barcelona.

The new itineraries were developed by Landry & Kling, using ports that the cruise line didn’t normally visit. We selected the ground operators, created new custom shore excursions in each port, and re-booked excursion choices for all passengers in advance of departure. Our client’s worries were creatively addressed thanks to the flexibility of having a “floating hotel” that could easily be rescheduled to a more desirable destination.

Trade Show at Sea & Simultaneous Translation of Sessions

Landry & Kling staged a mini-trade show aboard Nordic Empress for a major financial institution who wanted to educate their Caribbean and Latin American bankers about new products and services. There were 15 booths (pipe-and-drape), a logo store, and debit-card swipe systems that credited the cardholder for attending the business sessions–all of which were offered with simultaneous translation in three languages.

Virtual Trade Show and Un-Conventional Meeting at Sea

The Latin American Division of SKF was looking for a unique destination for their 2012 Distributor Convention and turned to Landry & Kling for assistance. Based on our recommendation, the client chose Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas, sailing 4 nights to the Bahamas.

The program agenda presented several onboard challenges, including: SKF wanted to include a product display at the trade show, but their products were too large to bring on the ship; attendees needed multi-language translation; the company promised a farewell party “under the stars”, but the pool deck was not available.

Landry & Kling staff jumped into action and came up with several creative solutions. We added a Miami-based production company to our team; we directed the production team to build kiosks with plasma screens to display products at the “virtual trade show”, and put them on wheels to transfer them onto the ship; we sourced a translation services company and added multilingual staff onsite.

As for the farewell party? We collaborated with the cruise line and onboard crew, the ship’s Chief Engineer, and our production team to create a fabulous, first-time-ever event on the Sports Deck. Generators and technical equipment was , a portable DJ booth and inflatable furniture, gobo lights projecting the SKF logo, and lots of neon to evoke a South Beach-style club atmosphere.

Drawing for 3 BMW’s at the Port of Miami

We orchestrated the preliminary rounds of an elimination drawing for 3 BMW automobiles onboard Sovereign of the Seas for an incentive group on a 3-night cruise. The final drawing and announcement of the winners was to be held at a vacant terminal at the Port of Miami so they could see the 3 beautiful BMW’s when they debarked the ship

Landry & Kling sourced the hard-to-find cars and extra keys and – with only 72 hours lead time over the weekend – rounded up seating, a red carpet, and a DJ with an oversize sound system.The L&K team also coordinated appropriate “winner’s music”; obtained champagne, balloon bouquets and confetti-guns; and provided the transportation between terminals for the final drawing and celebration of the winners prior to the group departure for the airport.

Simultaneous Dockside Charters in Boston

During the peak fall tourist season in New England, hotel rooms are booked long in advance. So when our top charter client faced a housing shortage for October in Boston for their global new product launch, a dockside cruise ship charter was the perfect solution.

Although we presented 10 different ship options, the client’s heart was set on the world-famous Queen Elizabeth 2. There was just one problem: due to the short lead time, Cunard Line declined the charter request. However, because of our industry access to Cunard’s President, we were able to secure a charter contract for both QE2 and Oceanic for two simultaneous dockside charters for 10 nights in Boston.

The two vessels accommodated over 15,000 attendees for 1or 2-night stays. Landry & Kling managed the ship’s inventory, plus 18 daily seminars and a variety of other activities scheduled onboard the ships each day. We also arranged security, and managed meal sales to help offset the charter cost for our client.

A Floating Rock Festival Fundraiser

The Native American Heritage Association (NAHA) contacted Landry & Kling with a unique idea – a floating benefit rock concert with proceeds to provide emergency assistance and other programs to benefit Sioux Native Americans. We researched ship options and found that Royal Caribbean’s 3,200-passenger Liberty of the Seas would be the perfect fit for the first Rock Legends Cruise ship charter. With ample entertainment and music venues, the Liberty of the Seas could accommodate several simultaneous rock concerts, and the array of dining outlets and recreational facilities would add extra value for the Rock Legend fans.

The Landry & Kling marketing and operation teams worked closely with NAHA to develop and promote the largest rock festival ever produced at sea. We planned the daily program, handled staging logistics, created the website and managed online registrations. Our marketing staff assisted with press releases, social media and the production of TV and radio commercials. During the planning phase, L&K’s Operations Team met with the concert production team onboard the ship to discuss music venues, timing, and stage and lighting setups for all bands.

On embarkation day, there were 72 pallets of stage equipment on trucks standing by for unloading. A 20-story crane lifted cages of amps, curtains, light trees and cables from the pier to the top deck, where technicians were building a sound stage.

Once onboard, our onsite team of 15 went to work, coordinating with the production crew and cruise staff to make sure all events ran smoothly. The biggest-ever rock festival at sea was a smash hit, with 21 legendary bands performing round-the-clock on multiple stages.